Far from mortal lands, in the realm where silence holds the bones of time, the God of Death stood motionless.
The pressure of what he'd witnessed still clung to his form like smoke. For the first time in countless eons… he felt fear.
"This must be brought before the Celestial Council…"
He turned and vanished into the void, preparing for the Peace Gathering—a council scheduled to convene in eighteen celestial years...
That was eighteen hundred years in the mortal realm. And by then… the child may already be beyond their reach. Meanwhile… beneath Sarpamukhi …The woman who had saved the unmarked child from fire and death revealed her true form. Her name whispered across forests and fangs alike—
Jwalamukhi
The beast queen.
She stared into the baby's face—innocent, unaware, with eyes like cosmic dusk—and something ancient in her heart stirred.
"From this day forward… You are mine."
She carried him through the sacred trees of Sarpavana, a realm dense with divine flora, ancient beasts, and the heart of wild magic.
There, beside a river that shimmered with moonlight, she built a small, hidden home.
That night, under the stars, the baby cried for the first time.
Hungry. Vulnerable.
Jwala, though feared by gods and beasts alike, had never known motherhood. She held him close, cradled him gently—but she was unmarried, and thus had never nursed a child.
"Shh, little one… I don't know how to…"
She knew an ancient method where turning blood into milk and she knew that and she whispered in her mind This time, I owe you one for teaching this art.
She fed the child, and he slowly drifted to sleep, resting peacefully on her chest, his tiny hands clinging to her warmth.
And as her eyes closed, she whispered:
"You'll be the light that fills my lonely life…
My son. My everything."
She smiled, and they both fell into slumber, her body coiled protectively around him.
Days Passed...
Peace ruled their world. The baby grew slowly, crawling through the home with curiosity, his laughter echoing off wooden walls. But one night—under a star-filled sky with a lustreless moon —he scraped his hand on a jagged stone.
He whimpered.
Jwala picked him up, worried.
"Let me see, sweet one..."
She licked the cut, using her saliva's healing properties as beast kin often did.
But something happened.
The moment his Blood touched her tongue—dark blue, rich and heavy with cosmic power—something exploded within her.
"Wh-what is… this…?!"
Her knees buckled.
Light burst from her skin.
She collapsed.
And then, her entire being began to evolve.
Her spirit twisted upward. Her beast core howled.
A tail of energy wrapped around her spine. Her fangs grew sharper. Scales gleamed with divine sheen.
She wasn't just the Queen of Serpents anymore.
She had ascended—
To the very pinnacle of all beasts.
She became... Mrigadhipathi.
The Supreme Beast of Beasts.